I tend not to like Mech anime and have had some surprises in the past with Korean anime, generally preferring the Japanses ones for story and design... hence my surprise when viewing this little gem.
OK, the story is a classic tale of good vs. evil but that is to be expected in sci-fi anime... aliens buried under the ice on the pole (evil aliens), chosen ones to be knight defenders (hmmm seen it all somewhere before didn't I?), comic robot sidekick, love story between enemies... The combination of all these elements however is quite well done, leading naturally from one part of the story to another.
The 3D animations are superb, keeping it just far enough from emulating reality to keep you rooted in this sci-fi world. OK, they did "borrow" some elements from elsewhere, the general seems to come straight from Moebius and that huge canon, last time I saw that one was in Alien. This does however not diminish the fact that this movie deserves quite a bit of praise.
The designers managed to package all these classic ingredients into an action packed bundle, with coherent storyline and great animation.
An animated Excalibur with mechanized sword-wielding knights, complete with uber-villain and an Arch. A classic in it's genre and recommended viewing.
Now if only they had kept that comic robot sidekick a bit under control!
OK, the story is a classic tale of good vs. evil but that is to be expected in sci-fi anime... aliens buried under the ice on the pole (evil aliens), chosen ones to be knight defenders (hmmm seen it all somewhere before didn't I?), comic robot sidekick, love story between enemies... The combination of all these elements however is quite well done, leading naturally from one part of the story to another.
The 3D animations are superb, keeping it just far enough from emulating reality to keep you rooted in this sci-fi world. OK, they did "borrow" some elements from elsewhere, the general seems to come straight from Moebius and that huge canon, last time I saw that one was in Alien. This does however not diminish the fact that this movie deserves quite a bit of praise.
The designers managed to package all these classic ingredients into an action packed bundle, with coherent storyline and great animation.
An animated Excalibur with mechanized sword-wielding knights, complete with uber-villain and an Arch. A classic in it's genre and recommended viewing.
Now if only they had kept that comic robot sidekick a bit under control!